Commercial Confidential: NorthPointe Executive Park

Editor’s note: “Commercial Confidential” is a Mecklenburg Times profile of a commercial property in the Charlotte area.

In terms of demand for office space, Downtown and SouthPark dwarf the North submarket, which paradoxically pays off for NorthPointe Executive Park.

Despite a lack of submarket demand, NorthPointe Executive Park has only about 4 percent vacancy. Photo by Payton Guion

Northern Mecklenburg County is home to Northpointe, and John Ball, a senior leasing agent with Charlotte-based Trinity Partners, said, “There’s not as much deal velocity in that submarket” as in Downtown and SouthPark. “Landlords (in the North submarket) have to really get in there and make deals happen because you don’t know when the next deal might come through.”

Ball said one reason NorthPointe has been successful in the 12-or-so years since it was developed is that lack of demand, which in turn caused a lack of large Class A office in north Meck.

With little more than “small condominium office space” in the Lake Norman area, Ball said, Pizzagalli Properties, developer of NorthPointe, correctly identified an opening in Huntersville.

Ball said that even though there is not nearly enough demand for developers to build more office space, the office park by the lake lures two types of tenants: people who live on Lake Norman and don’t want to drive all the way into Charlotte for work, and those who wish to take advantage of the proximity to the Lowe’s distribution center and other industrial space north of the city.

NorthPointe is 96 to 97 percent occupied, with two of the four buildings in the office park completely full. The average occupancy rate in the North submarket is 85 percent, according to Charlotte-based Karnes Co., an area analytics firm.

Ball said his focus remains on keeping rents high, as well as increasing occupancy. He said he is expecting the market to tighten up, and for occupancy to go up a bit, over the remainder of the year.

“I think we’re going to follow the area trend, where the market is tightening up,” he said. “But I’d be lying to you if I said I expect this submarket to be on fire.”